FM Reception question, please

Two facts. When I worked in retail audio we sold Terk antennas. Because our store offered an unconditional return option, approximately half of the Terks came back.
I also contacted C.Crane but I bought the Fanfare whip antenna and mounted it on the peak of my roof. Reception strength doubled. Try it,

Fact is, by replacing my MD Silver Ribbon (indoors) with a Fanfare whip on the peak of my roof (outdoors, I increased the signal strength reading on my Accuphase T-101 tuner from 2 to 5 (pegged the meter).
There is nothing theoretical about this. It really happened.
Now, that said, I must also tell you that I listen exclusively to a 16 watt community radio station whose broadcast antenna is visible from my whip at a distance of about 5 miles.
This is a great little station by the way. You can check it out at www.kafmradio.org on the web. It's wildly eclectic so if it isn't your thing when you tune in, try again later.
I'm in the Mountain time zone in the USA.
Now, thanks to the internet, that 16 watts can be heard around the world. Isn't that incredible?

Ryan,
I'm in the Grand Valley of western Colorado. We have a dozen or so stations in the valley and high mountains preventing reception of anything farther away than 20 miles. Terrain in the valley is very flat. Perhaps my circumstances are too unusual to serve as an example.